Elysa Rice's Blog

I have a friend, let's call her L... she currently lives in Texas. L just got a fabulous job offer in another part of the country. She's super excited and of course crazy rushed trying to pack up to move cross country next week.

Trying to diligently handle all the pieces of moving, L called to talk to her leasing office today. She currently has 4 months left on her lease. The apartments say it will cost her $5,000 to break her lease. This is almost double what she owes if she just paid the rent for the next 4 months. I figured if there was anyone who had a plan B for L it would be the multifamily community. L is considering finding someone to live in her apartment for the next 4 months - but the question is where to find this person.

All thoughts and ideas are welcome!

I would consider myself to be an idea person. I often run across things that are just starting and I'd say I'm a pretty good judge of whether or not that idea will take off. Last week I saw an idea that I think is great, especially for the multifamily industry.

Introducing NeighborhoodGoods:

Holidays are a great opportunity to bring your community together. Although, I'm still not sure where June went here is a list of ideas of fun patriotic things your apartment community can do on Independence Day.

The week of the 4th:

• Draw a patriotic mural on your sidewalk with red, white & blue sidewalk chalk (or have residents submit facebook photos of their sidewalk chalk murals)
• Fill clear bags with red, white & blue assorted candy – tie with ribbons – have available in the office the week of the 4th for residents and prospects
• Host a balcony decorating contest - residents decorate balconies with red, white, and blue lights, flags all over.
• Have each of your team members wear red, white and blue during the week.
• Email your residents to thank them for being a part of your community and provide them with any additional holiday resources you may want to share.
• Provide links to local fireworks and other events in your resident portal or apartment blog.
• Have your residents share favorite 4th of July recipes – publish your favorites in resident newsletter/facebook/blog/twitter.

Organized Activities:

• Barbecue – everyone bring their own meat to grill, and a side item to share
• Have a pet costume contest.
• Decorate cookies with red, white & blue frosting, sprinkles, candy
• Host a hot-dog or apple-pie eating contest
• Make patriotic cupcakes – have residents bring (or provide for them) undecorated cupcakes and schedule a cupcake decorating party decorate with red, white & blue frosting and sprinkles.
• Have a picnic with organized games – relays, races, water balloon toss, tug-of-war, pin the tail, ... Serve red & blue fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, watermelon) with white cool whipped topping
• Make tie-dyed shirts in red, white & blue
• Fourth of July themed movies – if you have a media center or community room to play movies throughout the day. If you're north of Texas (it's way hot here!) you may be able to setup an outdoor screen to show movies on the lawn.
• Resident Tailgate - have a tailgating party with residents and a scheduled time to carpool to the local fireworks display.
• Write letters to people you know serving in the military right now. Notify your residents that you will be collecting letters to send for them, or suggest a service like Email Our Military as a community project.
• Have a fundraiser to a local charity (sell lemonade, sell concessions, garage sale with proceeds going to charity)
• Organize a local volunteer opportunity - have residents meet and socialize while making a difference around your community.

For the Kids

• Bicycle parade – the kids decorate their bikes and ride in a parade through the neighborhood (don’t forget those helmets!). You can also decorate strollers, skateboards, wagons, wheelchairs, walkers and scooters.
• Red, white & blue crafts for kids – schedule a time to have activities for the kids in the community.
• Water based activities for kids – water balloons, bubbles, water guns, wading pools
• Find 4th of July coloring pages online for kids to color: here are some crafts and printables to get you started.

For more 4th of July Activities visit: MyPlanningList, Family Fun, Yahoo Independence Day.

Do you have any additional ideas or resources that your property uses?

As of June 1 I have officially been in the "multifamily industry" for 1 year. Before June 1st of last year I didn't even know there was an industry around multifamily, in fact I'm pretty sure that I'd never heard the word "multifamily". I have been an apartment resident since 2002 (sounds crazy to think of it) but in the last year I've added words such as "resident retention", "lease up", and "resident portal" to my vocabulary. I read a blog post today from Heather Blume entitled "Didn't You See the Balloons?" (STOP: go read it). In her search for an apartment building that was camouflaged by many other buildings, it took quite a bit of effort to find her destination. When she told the leasing consultant she'd had trouble finding the apartment his response was (you guessed it) "Didn't you see the balloons?".

So here's my question, is this how all of this property's marketing and "customer service" issues are handled? Do they get phone calls that resemble this:

I've lived in my fair share of apartments over the years and I always enjoy the little added touch of a creative move in gift on the day I get my keys. Usually these gifts are very utilitarian, laundry detergent, dishwashing soap, a trash bag, etc. I ran across some adorable free printable greeting cards that Canon is offering. I think it would be fun to have a few (10 maybe) "I've Moved" cards waiting for a new resident to send to their friends and family.

Here are Moving cards from Canon:

With the current state of the economy, we've noticed an increase in the multifamily industry of creative endeavors to bring in new residents and stand apart from the rest. The Dallas Business Journal featured a story of one such endeavor developing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Los Angeles-based Learning Links Center plans to acquire 1,200 plus units over the next year with up to 3,500 over the next three years. With each community that Learning Links buys, the owners forgo rent on one unit and convert it to a study area where a teacher provides free after-school tutoring. These apartments will also offer free or discounted rent to teachers who agree to live in their community and tutor youth who live there.

"The goal is to make the apartments more appealing to renters and minimize vacancy and vandalism," says George Pino co-founder. "The resource centers in the two buildings we have them in have been very well received," Pino continues. "The kids, as well as the families and the communities in general, have loved the concept and have really taken to it."

Geolocation apps (aka location based social networks) are popping up with full force. The leader (in my opinion) these days is foursquare.

We're all about helping you find new ways to explore the city.

We'll help you meet up with your friends and let you earn points and unlock badges for discovering new places, doing new things and meeting new people.

I'm not sure how it happened but somehow it's March 1st. At the beginning of each month to get my creative juices flowing I have two random/fun traditions.

1) I change my desktop wallpaper. There are numerous resources for finding new and creative desktops but I'm partial to Smashing Magazine's monthly calendar desktops. Each month various designers submit their artwork/photography with an incorporated calendar for that month. Here is March's edition.

My current background:

*Ok first, I must preface this post by saying it's almost 5:30, I've had too much coffee and I think everything is funny right now.

But really ... I read a post on MSN today, wait no MSNBC - that's a legit source right? Well I thought so, until I saw this article's headline Cold sheets? Hire a human 'bed-warmer'. A bed who?

LONDON - International hotel chain Holiday Inn is offering a trial human bed-warming service at three hotels in Britain this month. If requested, a willing staff-member at two of the chain's London hotels and one in the northern English city of Manchester will dress in an all-in-one fleece sleeper suit before slipping between the sheets. "The new Holiday Inn bed warmers service is a bit like having a giant hot water bottle in your bed," Holiday Inn spokeswoman Jane Bednall said in an e-mailed statement.